About us

Learning to Lead has grown out of the Wooltru Leadership Program and the Leadership – A Simpler Way Program.

The Wooltru Leadership Program was started when change in South Africa was inevitable, we believed that the new dispensation in South Africa would require strong leaders. The struggle played its part in developing many amazing leaders, but it also crushed the spirit of leadership in many of our people.

In the initial stages, the Wooltru Leadership Program focused mainly on the teachings of Stephen Covey but as new thinking on leadership, human organisation, business practice and scientific discovery emerged, the Program began to take on a unique flavour.

As a result of Wooltru’s unbundling in 2000, the decision was taken to run the Program independently. We changed the name to Leadership – A Simpler Way. We now call the program Learning to Lead.

Leading is a journey – an inner one and an outer one. There is no final destination; rather twists and turns in the road. On every program, we believe that we are on a journey towards understanding the art of leading a little better. We learn as much from our participants as they learn from us. This paradigm shift for us has indeed been an exciting one!

We have developed a number of distinct programs which all focus on developing leaders. The programs share the same theoretical background and approach, but are designed to meet the specific needs of the audiences they are addressing.

The Team

Colin Hall
Corporate facilitator

Colin Hall was a corporate man for 50 years serving on many company Boards including South African Breweries and the Wooltru Group, which he put together and chaired for some years.

On that journey Colin’s passion became people – as individuals, in teams and as part of society. Colin visited the Covey Institute in Utah where he acquired the rights to Covey’s work and introduced the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to South Africa through the Wooltru Leadership Program which he ran personally.

In the initial stages, the Wooltru Leadership Program focused mainly on the teachings of Stephen Covey but as new thinking on leadership, human organisation, business practice and scientific discovery emerged, the Program began to take on a unique flavour and redefined “leadership”.

Since 1992, Colin has conducted programs that are changing corporate culture. Through the Learning To Lead program, which he and his son Steve have crafted together, they hope to create new, simpler pictures of leadership relevant to the Quantum Age and appropriate to South Africa, and Africa.

The wisdom they use is drawn from 50 years of business and professional experience and from a deep study of History, Old Cultures (especially our own African heritage), from Nature (which has remarkable lessons to teach), and from New Science (with its extraordinary ability to explain how humans and human systems work). Latterly, and most excitingly, they draw from the research they have undertaken on how the human brain really works.

Together they have shared this search for leadership with more than 50,000 colleagues, businessmen and women, professionals, local government officials, members of the South African Cabinet, members of the South African Police Service, educators and learners and countless heroes and heroines of the Community. All have been their teachers on the way.

Steve Hall
Facilitator, Johannesburg

Steve has a BA Degree from the University of Cape Town in Psychology, Economics, Politics and Philosophy.

In 1993 he travelled the world for a year and whilst in Utah qualified as a licensed facilitator of the work of Dr Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Upon his return to South Africa he facilitated the Wooltru Leadership Program and contributed to the evolution of that Program into the current Learning To Lead Program. He is a Director of Learning To Lead.

Steve is a natural facilitator. He shares wisdom easily, whilst drawing wisdom and experience from the participants, many of whom will have had wider and more extensive experience than his.

His love and intimate knowledge of nature has enriched his facilitation. He uses nature as his source of example and metaphor.

Whilst he facilitates a wide range of programs on Human Skills, Leadership and Management, his first love is our Energy Journey. He understands it, lives it and is an excellent guide for both individuals and teams who want to master their energy on a sustainable basis.

In the last three years Steve has added a fascinating new dimension to what he offers and how it is offered.
The Acronym which he uses to describe it, is F I E L D :

  • Facilitated
  • Immersion
  • Experiential
  • Leadership
  • Development

Essentially it flows from a strong view he holds that Leadership cannot be taught; it has to be learnt.

So while all his programs are facilitated to create structure, the excitement and novelty lies in the unique situations he creates which are opportunities for deep and personal “ah-ha” moments.

He lives in Gauteng with his wife Cath and their two children, Hannah and Jonathan.

David (Feathers) Peacock
Finance, Johannesburg

David and his family moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2001 and they have enjoyed the change immensely. He has a quick sense of humour and adds a huge amount of energy to the team every day.

His BIG YES’s are squash and chocolate.